Technical SETA SME – Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Dovel Technologies, Inc; Bethesda (MD); Hybrid; USD 113,000 - 188,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

401(k) Plan

Parental Leave & Adoption Assistance

Paid Holidays

Job summary

Guidehouse is hiring a Technical SETA to serve as the NLP/LLM SME for a data-intensive research program in the national security space.

You will participate in development lifecycle activities, attend technical meetings, and help design and optimize NLP pipelines for mission environments, leveraging Hugging Face, PyTorch, TensorFlow and spaCy. This role requires an active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph and a strong background in AI/ML for language processing.

Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph is required.
• Bachelor's degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering field.
• Eight (8) or more years of work experience in physics, mathematics, computer science, or related engineering areas.
• Experience with NLP methodologies including text classification, NER, topic modeling, information extraction, or transformer-based architectures.

Responsibilities

• Provide SME support across development, source selection, execution, and transition of research programs.
• Attend meetings, workshops, conferences, and testing events as the Subject Matter Expert in NLP/LLMs.
• Develop and evaluate NLP pipelines, including preprocessing, tokenization, model training, fine-tuning, and optimization for mission environments.
• Understand data architectures and pipelines for large-scale analytics and intelligence production.
• Support governance, data quality, bias mitigation, and mission assurance in NLP/LLM deployments.

Skills

Natural Language Processing

LLMs

AI/ML

Text Analytics

NLP Pipelines

Education

Bachelor's degree in physics, mathematics, CS, or relevant engineering fields

Tools

Hugging Face

PyTorch

TensorFlow

spaCy

Job description

Job Family: Data Science & Analysis (ESA) Travel Required: Up to 10% Clearance Required: Active Top Secret SCI with Polygraph

What You Will Do:

The Technical SETA will provide support in the execution of the lifecycle of a research program from development, source selection, execution, closeout, and transition. The Technical SETA will be responsible for attending meetings, workshops, conferences, and testing events as the Subject Matter Expert. In this role, the Technical SETA will serve as the Subject Matter Expert in Natural Language Processing (NLP), including large language models (LLMs), machine-language understanding, text analytics, and AI-driven language processing technologies.

What You Will Need:

An ACTIVE and MAINTAINED TS/SCI Federal or DoD security clearance with a polygraph

Bachelor's degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software)

EIGHT (8) or more years of work experience in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software).

Experiences should include, but not be limited to:

• Systems engineering and integration experience in complex, data-intensive environments
• Knowledge of AI/ML (computer vision, NLP, predictive analytics, LLMs)
• Demonstrated experience with NLP methodologies such as text classification, named entity recognition, topic modeling, information extraction, or transformer-based architectures
• Experience developing or evaluating NLP pipelines, including text preprocessing, tokenization strategies, model training, fine-tuning, and optimization for mission environments
• Understanding of data architectures and pipelines for large-scale analytics/intelligence production
• Familiarity with AI governance, data quality, bias mitigation, and mission assurance in operational NLP/LLM deployments
• Experience creating program plans, work breakdown structures, and milestone schedules

What Would Be Nice To Have:

• Master's degree or PhD in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software) with FOUR (4) or more years of work experience
• Experience in the Intelligence Community (IC), including requirements, CONOPS, and transition
• Experience managing a multi-disciplinary R&D or T&E team
• Experience as a Project Manager or Deputy Project Manager
• Experience with NLP development tools or frameworks such as Hugging Face, PyTorch, TensorFlow, spaCy, or similar libraries
• Ability to proactively manage multiple, concurrent tasks
• Excellent writing, slide development, and editing skills, including the ability to develop succinct, comprehensive, and understandable documents using complex data from multiple sources for technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and time-management skills; detail oriented

What We Offer:

The annual salary range for this position is $113,000.00-$188,000.00. Compensation decisions depend on a wide range of factors, including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, security clearances, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs.

Benefits include:

• Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
• Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
• Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Basic Life & Supplemental Life
• Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Student Loan PayDown Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
• Skills Development & Certifications
• Employee Referral Program
• Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
• Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
• Mobility Stipend

About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is an Equal Opportunity Employer-Protected Veterans, Individuals with Disabilities or any other basis protected by law, ordinance, or regulation.

Guidehouse will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law or ordinance including the Fair Chance Ordinance of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

If you have visited our website for information about employment opportunities, or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Guidehouse Recruiting at 1-571-633-1711 or via email at [e-mail]. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodation. All communication regarding recruitment for a Guidehouse position will be sent from Guidehouse email domains including @guidehouse.com or [e-mail]. Correspondence received by an applicant from any other domain should be considered unauthorized and will not be honored by Guidehouse.

Note that Guidehouse will never charge a fee or require a money transfer at any stage of the recruitment process and does not collect fees from educational institutions for participation in a recruitment event. Never provide your banking information to a third party purporting to need that information to proceed in the hiring process. If any person or organization demands money related to a job opportunity with Guidehouse, please report the matter to Guidehouse's Ethics Hotline. If you want to check the validity of correspondence you have received, please contact [e-mail]. Guidehouse is not responsible for losses incurred (monetary or otherwise) from an applicant’s dealings with unauthorized third parties. Guidehouse does not accept unsolicited resumes through or from search firms or staffing agencies. All unsolicited resumes will be considered the property of Guidehouse and Guidehouse will not be obligated to pay a placement fee.

Guidehouse is a global AI-led professional services firm delivering advisory, technology, and managed services to the commercial and government sectors. With an integrated business technology approach, Guidehouse drives efficiency and resilience in the healthcare, financial services, energy, infrastructure, and national security markets. Built to help clients across industries outwit complexity, the firm brings together approximately 18,000 professionals to achieve lasting impact and shape a meaningful future.

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